Lobe. I THE KINGDOM OF GOD. SAY to thee, do thou repeat To the first man thou mayest meet In lane, highway, or open street That he and we and all men move As broad as the blue sky above; That doubt and trouble, fear and pain That weary deserts we may tread, Yet, if we will one Guide obey, Shall issue out in heavenly day; And we, on divers shores now cast, And, ere thou leave him, say thou this, Who will not count it true, that Love, And one thing further make him know, Despite of all which seems at strife RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH. LOVED ONCE. I CLASSED, appraising once Earth's lamentable sounds, the 'well-a-day,' The jarring 'yea' and 'nay,' The fall of kisses on unanswering clay, The sobbed 'farewell,' the 'welcome' mournfuller,— But all did leaven the air With a less bitter leaven of sure despair Than these words-'I loved once.' And who saith, 'I loved once'? Not angels, whose clear eyes love, love foresee, Love through eternity! And by To Love, do apprehend To Be. Not God, called Love, his noble crown-name, casting A light too broad for blasting! The great God, changing not from everlasting, Saith never, I loved once.' Oh! never is 'loved once' Thy word, thou Victim-Christ, misprizèd Friend! But, having loved, Thou lovest to the end! This is man's saying-man's !—too weak to move Man desecrates the eternal God-word, Love, How say ye 'We loved once,' Blasphemers! Is your earth not cold enow, Ah, friends! and would ye wrong each other so? Whose prayers have met your own, Whose tears have fallen for you, whose smiles have shone So long, 'We loved them once'? Could ye, 'We loved her once,' Say calm of me, sweet friends, when out of sight— When hearts of better right Stand in between me and your happy light; Or when, as flowers kept too long in the shade, Ye find my colours fade, And all that is not love in me decayed— Such words, 'Ye loved me once'? Could ye, 'We loved her once,' Say cold of me, when further put away In earth's sepulchral clay— When mute the lips which deprecate to-day? Not so not then-least then-when life is shriven, Of those who sit and love you up in heaven, Say never, ye loved once! God is too near above, the grave beneath, And all our moments breathe Too quick in mysteries of life and death, There comes no change to justify that change, And yet that same word-'once’— Is humanly acceptive! Kings have said, 'We ruled once;'-dotards, 'We once taught and led;' Cripples 'once' danced i' the vines; and bards approved Were once by scornings moved; But love strikes one hour-Love. Those never loved Who dream that they loved once. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY. LOVE is the star by which our course we steer; ENOSIS. THOUG HOUGHT is deeper than all speech, Souls to souls can never teach What unto themselves was taught. We are spirits clad in veils ; Man by man was never seen ; To remove the shadowy screen. |